Swimmer Allison Naylor Signs With Long Island U., is iCAN Clinic Female Athlete Of Month For EHS

EDWARDSVILLE - Allison Naylor, who was one of the top performers on the girls swimming team at Edwardsville High School, signed a letter of intent to attend Long Island University in Brookville, N.Y. in a ceremony at the school recently.

Naylor, who won the 50-yard freestyle and placed second in the 100-yard butterfly in the IHSA Sectional Meet at the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center in October, 2020, will be swimming this coming season for head coach Matthew Donovan at the school, a member of the Northeast Conference, and she looks forward to the opportunity.

For her high school success in the pool, Naylor is the Riverbender.com Female Athlete of the Month for Edwardsville High School.

"I hope that I can just bring it," Naylor said in an interview that followed the ceremony, "and hopefully score some points in conference for them, and bring a good environment to the team."

Naylor's reasons for her decision to attend LIU were varied.

"I was really attracted to the location first, for sure," Naylor said. "I have always wanted to go somewhere where I haven't really been to, and just somewhere that's really fun. I fell in love with the school once I started talking to the coaches, and looking up tours and everything."

Naylor also considered Drury University in Springfield, Mo., and plans on majoring in biology.

Naylor did feel that having only a virtual tour of the campus was a bit more difficult, but still felt that LIU was the place where she wanted to go to school.

"It was a little bit harder, a little bit more like being unsure," Naylor said, "but I still knew that's where I wanted to be."

Naylor also felt that the location and opportunities at the school were a bit more better as well.

"There were a couple of different factors," Naylor said. "I think that I just liked the location and the opportunities a little bit better. It was an offer I just couldn't pass up."

Naylor believes that she'll race in the butterfly a lot, along with freestyle sprint races, along with the backstroke. Tigers coach Christian Rhoten also thinks Naylor will do very well for the Sharks.

"Yeah, absolutely," Rhoten said. "She's really come into her own as a great athlete, a great leader in our program. She is just an awesome student, awesome all-around. Every year, we hate to see seniors that are awesome graduate, but it's exciting to know she's going to move on, and be able to continue swimming, compete and take it to the next level."

Rhoten thinks that Naylor will be able to contribute at a high level right away for LIU.

"I think right away, she's going to be in their top tier of swimmers," Rhoten said, "looking at her times, and they've got some solid recruiting going on right now. They're definitely a growing program, so I think she's going to make an impact right away on the sprints, butterfly. I think it's going to be awesome for them to be a part of a growing program for her is going to be really awesome. She's going have some great attention from coaches, as someone going to be integral on relays and things like that in a smaller conference. I think she's going to do really well."

Naylor is very grateful to have been an important part of the Tigers' program, and credits the coaching she received at both Edwardsville High and the Edwardsville Breakers swim club for helping her achieve as she has.

"I wouldn't be near the swimmer or person that I was today without them, growing up with the swim team, my teammates and just my parents, their parents," Naylor said. "I mean, we have such a good environment. and such a good support team that it's just that I know I wouldn't be in the same place I was without them."

Despite the problems caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic, Naylor was very grateful to get her senior season in.

"Compared to other years, it seems a little bit like a downer," Naylor said. "But I'm like really excited that I at least got one last swing to end it off with, and we got a sectional and everything like that, so it was really good."

Rhoten believes that Naylor will thrive in the New York City atmosphere.

"Part of the reason why she chose to go there is because she wants to go into that big city life," Rhoten said, "and I think that she'll thrive there."

Rhoten is also very proud of Naylor and her accomplishments during her time with the Tigers.

"Really not only this season, but every season for the last three years has been a really good progress for her," Rhoten said. "Athletically, she's worked incredibly hard, maybe harder than I've seen it al lot of athletes working. In the seven years I've been coaching, she's probably top tier of hardest working, not only in the pool and the classroom. She does a lot of dry land work, and she really just lays it all out there. So, she's an all-around great person a great athlete and I think she's going to do great things."

For Naylor's part, she's looking forward to being in the New York City atmosphere.

"I feel like there's a lot of opportunities out there," Naylor said. "I could just see myself really thriving in an environment like that."

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